Week in review

Construction of Pueblo County’s new Emergency Operations Center is on schedule and is expected to open by May.

Sheriff Kirk Taylor said the building is expected to be completed Dec. 15. After that, $3 million to $4 million worth of technology will be installed, which could take as long as three months.

The $9 million structure, located at 10th and Main streets, is being built with federal funds, and will be the home of “one of the most technologically advanced communication centers” in the state, Taylor said.

Name change idea nixed

The effort to rename a North Side thoroughfare as ThunderWolf Boulevard ended last week.

Pueblo County commissioners rescinded their resolution earlier this month that urged the state and city to rename University Boulevard for the mascot at Colorado State University-Pueblo.

The commissioners reversed their vote over angst and confusion from community Latino groups over how the name change would impact Cesar Chavez Memorial Highway.

Former teacher still certified

A former South High School teacher who resigned earlier this month after allegations surfaced that she had sent explicit text messages to a student and kissed him still is eligible to teach in Colorado.

Larisa Oringdulph maintains a valid educator credential, an official with the Colorado Department of Education confirmed last week.

Oringdulph resigned her teaching position on Nov. 7, according to Pueblo City Schools (D60) spokesman Scott Jones. Police concluded there was no crime committed by Oringdulph. The case was closed in late October.

RTA loan on hold

City Council has taken the proposed $14.4 million loan for a new exhibition hall at the Pueblo Convention Center off of its agenda for Monday’s council meeting.

Council members decided they want more time to consider the loan request from the city’s partners in the Regional Tourism Act project that is intended to bring at least $43 million in state sales tax revenue to Downtown development over the next 50 years.

Child care center closes

A longtime South Side child care center unexpectedly shuttered its doors last Wednesday, leaving families scrambling to find alternative care for their children.

The Washington Children’s Center, 401 S. Prairie Ave., formerly Jefferson Elementary School, notified parents last week via a sign on the center’s bulletin board that it would be closing effective at the end of the day Wednesday.

According to Jon Drake, executive director of the center, financial difficulties led to the center’s closing.

‘Nothing happened’

In her first public comments since releasing information from an alcohol-related incident earlier this year, County Commissioner Liane “Buffie” McFadyen last week said “nothing happened” on the night in question.

Because the Jan. 25 alcohol-related incident is under review by the El Paso County district attorney, McFadyen would not talk specifics about the case, which she called “the night that nothing happened.”

New red-light camera installed

A new red-light camera has been activated at Prairie and Northern avenues on Pueblo’s South Side. Tickets at $75 will be issued beginning Dec. 18.

That’s the newest location in the city’s campaign against drivers who run red lights.

The Northern and Prairie camera joins the cameras already in place at the Prairie and Thatcher avenue intersection and the U.S. 50 and Norwood Avenue intersection on the East Side.

Lead levels found in families

Pueblo City-County Health Department officials have been notified that six households in the Eilers neighborhood had reportable levels of lead in their blood, based on testing done in September by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

The question that has confronted council for nearly two years is whether to ask the federal Environmental Protection Agency to list the Eilers neighborhood on the federal Superfund list for cleanup.

Fearing it would hurt property values, council has been reluctant to label the neighborhood as contaminated but the continuing debate over the unknown extent of any lead and arsenic pollution has had much the same effect.

Two Rivers pulls reservoir plan

A plan by a private water developer to build a reservoir east of Pueblo has been put on hold.

“We’re not building a reservoir at this time,” said John McKowen, CEO of the Two Rivers Water & Farming Co. “Our immediate need right now is augmentation water. It’s primary to the support of our farms.”

Two Rivers has not completely given up on a plan to build the reservoir on Southwest Farms property, but will put off the plan for several years. The reservoir site is on the Excelsior Ditch.

This week’s meetings

Monday

City Council work session, 5:30 p.m., council chambers, 1 City Hall Place.